DRDO may field Indigenous 155-mm gun for the Indian Army by end of 2013

Indian army which is struggling to purchase 155-mm Guns for itself for the past 9 years might wait little longer and for an indigenously developed 155-mm towed gun.Many of the guns which were offered by foreign vendors are already blacklisted by Ministry of Defence due various ill-regulatories and allegations of corruption that includes some of the top companies like, Singapore Technologies Kinetics (STK); Germany’s Rheinmetall; Israel Military Industries (IMI); and another Israeli company, Soltam. Denel, a South African company, had been blacklisted earlier;
155-mm gun Project will be a Public-Private joint venture between DRDO and Bharat Forge / Larsen & Toubro. ARDE one of the DRDO Laboratory has already taken up the work and is carrying out preliminary work of the project.
ARDE designed Arjun’s Tanks 120mm Riffle bore guns and even developed the 105mm Indian Field Gun (IFG), Indian army is likely to work with ARDE on this project and is keen on this project to avoid further delays in inducting 155mm guns.
Indian army which has a requirement of more than 1400 of 155-mm Guns is now counting on ARDE to pull it out of this mess and deliver this guns for trails by 2013 at best, while ARDE with help from Private sector is confident to produce one by 2013 and give it for Army Trials.

(Ajay Naik For Security Magazine)